[Publib] RE: Librarian Talents -

[Robert L. Balliot]

Greetings Stacy,

Simply put: 

administrative government serves the public
fire departments serve the public
police serve the public
public works serves the public
public school serves the public
public clinics serve the public
public libraries serve the public

Unlike high end retail, those entities are organized and 
supported with the idea that they will provide for the pubic 
good, not for the purpose of selling the public goods.

I do  agree with you very strongly that 
customer service should be stressed from "the top down".
However, I feel that the reasons for doing that in high 
end retail and librarianship are fundamentally different. 
Although I think we can learn some things from for profit
customer service, some of the lessons simply do not apply.

Also, I would ask the word 'behooves' be eliminated
from current speech and writing when referencing members
of the library <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooves>  profession.  


*************************************************
Robert L. Balliot
1-401-441-5763
Skype: RBalliot
Bristol, Rhode Island
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
*************************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: BookBitch [mailto:bookbitch at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 12:23 PM
To: rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com; publib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Publib] RE: Librarian Talents - 

I'll be happy to tell you how high end retail relates
to public libraries.  Simply put, we are both serving
the public.  ...

The point is they stress good customer service from the
top down, and so should libraries. ...

With everything we are up against, from budget cuts to
bookstores that encourage people to sit around and
read to people thinking they can find everything they
need on the Internet, it behooves us to treat our
patrons as we would like to be treated, sans any type
of eye rolling.  ...

Stacy Alesi
Library Name *Censored*
Boca Raton, Florida
(& MLIS student at USF)



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